Hey guys,
Bald cypress has always been one of those trees that I tend to drool over .
My question is how frost hardy are they actually?
There’s a ton of contradicting info about this, so can’t really tell if I could manage to keep it alive in my region.
Lately we have interesting winters over here.
Super long autumns but some heavey frosts to.
I usually keep all my trees in an unheated balcony, the coldest it’s been in there was around -5 C.
Would that kill a BC?
The other option for winter would be keeping it in a frost free basement, but that could actually be to warm, sometimes it get’s over 10 C in there.
Also what about late frosts?
Bald cypress in the grow in the river bottom of the Mississippi river in Minneapolis Minnesota a zone 4. Of note, these are in the ground. In a bonsai container, they will need more protection. I don’t worry with a temp to 30 degrees F, -6 C for short periods.
I see, that sounds promising.
According to USDA I’m in zone 5a-ish
How vigorous are these in their local environment?
My climate is a bit cooler then over there.
Any pointers, I’d be completely new to this species.
In a true USDA zone 5a (-15C) bald cypress would not survive in a pot since that is cold enough to kill the roots even if the upper portion survives. A low of -5C is USDA zone 9 or perhaps 8 where I would not expect any root zone issues unless it was several days of those temperatures with little daytime warming. I believe Mirai is in USDA zone 8.
I have one in USDA zone 6 (-20C) which I keep in a lightly heated greenhouse (just above freezing most of the time) and it does very well. I don’t get the same growth that they get in milder climates.
Yeah, it gets really cold outside that’s why I keep them in an unheated balcony.
Last winter the lowest it got in there was -5 although, that only lasted a few days when outside nights got below -25 C.
I could probably keep it safe winter, late spring frosts are what I’d be more conserbed about.
Thanks for the clarification. If the unheated balcony only drops to -5C when the outside air reaches -20C then you should have no trouble protecting against spring frosts. If you get concerned about a particular night, cover the tree with a sheet or similar keep it just a bit warmer. I am sure that the bald cypress in the ground in Minnesota get caught with spring freezes quite often and they do well. We had one in the yard in central Ohio (similar temperatures to you) and it did very well.
Found these guys, though pretty young for about 150.US
These are the first I’ve seen them being sold in the EU.
Wondering, that if I’d tie them togheather and let them grow, would they fuse?
No clue as how they callous.
Maybe stripping the bark at places to help the process.
My cypress (…) has done well at <17F up to 100 F.
I keep it in a sheltered enclosure with my larger trees to winter. I throw a tarp over them when it hits <20F. Snow cover is insulation!
It is doing real well at +100F days this summer.
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I don’t have any experience fusing bald cypress trunks, but a quick search found someone speculating that they would fuse since dawn redwood will fuse. I would think that careful trimming to get them to mate, matching of the exposed bark, and sealing the joint would most likely work. Good luck and please report back.
I live in an area where Bald cypress grow natively. It gets about -10c to -15c at night, most winters for short periods. I grow them as yard trees, in pots, standing in water as well as regular plastic nursery pots, unprotected outdoors, so as long as it’s not extended periods of time at those temperatures, they are fine.
Maybe you can buy seedlings plant them in the ground as they grow very quickly. Good luck.
Thanks for the info Duke.
When it gets cold over here it lasts for weeks and with climate change going on, it gets super unpredictable.
Unfortunately I don’t have a yard, doing balcony bonsai and the lack of space that comes with it.
These trees are pretty rare over here, I could only find a few places that sell the in Europe and most of them are saplings only a few years old.
Growing them in pots and with my climate combo will take quite a few years.
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